Couple help out to honor deceased son

Friday

A grief-stricken father and stepmother decide to volunteer at the Father Bill’s and MainSpring Thanksgiving Community Dinner at the Christ Episcopal Church in Quincy.

Football and food were two of his favorite things. Throw in some family time, and Thanksgiving was a holiday tailor-made for Michael “Mikey” Borrelli of Randolph.

This past September, the 21-year-old kitchen chef and Patriots season-ticket holder died unexpectedly of a congenital heart condition. Borrelli’s grief-stricken father and stepmother, Michael and Rachelle of Waltham, said they didn’t know what to do on Thanksgiving – just eight weeks after Mikey’s death.

So the couple decided to volunteer Thursday, joining a group of nearly 100 local citizens who worked the Father Bill’s and MainSpring Thanksgiving Community Dinner at the Christ Episcopal Church in Quincy.

“We wanted to do something for Mikey in his memory,” said Michael Borrelli, whose son was a graduate of Blue Hills Regional High School in Canton, and a captain of the school’s football team.

“We didn’t feel like celebrating at home. We wanted to give back to the community,” Borrelli added.

Mikey Borrelli was recently enrolled in the culinary arts program at Newbury College in Brookline. He worked as a sous chef at restaurants in the South Shore and in Boston.

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